The wood floors look good at shows, but the 56 F100 I am about to start on, is going to be a driver and every day truck. I was thinking about using steel C purlins rather than wood. Spray them with Raptor bed liner and call it good. I just have to do the math and see if that would work. On my 53 F100 I built 20 years ago, I used 3/4" marine grade plywood and sprayed both sides with Raptor. I cut holes for D rings and bought a Mr. Pickup rubber mat. It wasn't glamorous, but it was functional.
I’ll be interested to see what ideas show up on this one. Someone in the past cut everything out of the bottom of the bed of my ‘33 pickup, nothing left but unfinished torched edges. I’m not sure how to fix it.
Here’s what I did for my ‘35: the metal pan and wood underneath were totally shot. I put wood under a new pan I had bent up for me. Drilled holes in the new floor pan for where the old “bed pan” would have been bolted down. Bought some stainless bed strips and drilled them to match the bed pan holes. Sprayed pan with tinted bedliner. Installed strips. There was more to it like making a hole to access fuel sender and making holes for the mounting bolts. I plan on having the battery back there in an old metal trunk made to match the bed finish. Hope this helps.
That’s similar to what I was thinking, but use the c purlins flipped upside down to look like the bed wood. The bed is 48-1/2” wide, so 8 would do it. Not sure on the gap in between for the strips though.
This is pretty “red neck ingenuity “ I don’t hate it . I think this is ridiculously useful if you’re hauling stuff. what if you did a “ fancy bed” with wood and had a mat you could slide in and out ? Those heavy duty mats they use in horse stables , weight lifting gym mats , we fix ice resurfacers at work ( think Zamboni ) but another brand they park the trucks on these heavy duty rubber mats so the blades don’t get damaged . just a thought , best of both worlds kinda thing .
Ive seen the plasticized deck planks used (Trex, etc) available in lots of colors. Tough but a little pricey.
The bed strips/ purlins are 7 3/4 inches apart on center and line up with the subframe holes. There a 5 of these on mine. The edge trim on the sides and front, I had bent up at a local metal shop
I used pine treated with carbon black and boiled linseed oil. I had the original bed strips powder coated.
I’ve got an 8ft break, at one time I thought about bending 16 gauge into that c-shape stated by the OP. Welding or bolting them together hidden on the sides
My '32 pickup was built to be a driver and not a show boat, I wanted the bed to be used to haul metal or trash. I just used a sheet of 3/4 plywood and covered it with black vinyl, it did the job as intended. HRP
When we built my pal Dave's 32-34 confused pickup we did it right by installing high gloss boards and stainless trim. 32/34 But it was rarely seen sense we made a cover for the bed. HRP
We did the bed in Dave's 1952 truck exactly like the confused truck. nicely finished wood and stainless strips. HRP
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